Remains of ancient toothed whale found

SANTA CRUZ — A 1,000-pound slab of sandstone lifted off a beach in Santa Cruz County yesterday may provide a better glimpse of what plied the seas 5 million years ago.

Within the rock, says a county-contracted excavation crew, are the partial remains of an ancient toothed whale, dating to a time when a shallow ocean covered most of the region and sea life wasn't what it is today.

The exact location of the excavation has been withheld at the request of paleontologists to protect the historic nature of the area.

The discovery of what's thought to be a six- to 10-foot animal, coming amid construction at the site, follows a find this year of a similarly aged whale nearby. That one, though, is believed to have been a baleen whale that unlike its counterpart fed on plants, not meat.

While whale bones aren't uncommon along Monterey Bay, the size of the intact section of animal excavated this week is unusual and could shed new light on life at the time, paleontologists say.

“If you have a relatively whole skeleton, there are things you can learn about what else has been found from the past,” said Frank Perry, a paleontologist at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History.

The excavation crew has yet to identify the species of small, toothed whale found on the beach.

The block of sandstone cut out of the shoreline contains at least a partial skull, in addition to several vertebrae, which makes identification possible, said David Haasl, senior paleontologist with PaleoResource Consultants, which performed the excavation.

Toothed whales from 5 million years ago don't exist today. Their descendants include the modern-day dolphin, orca, porpoise and pilot whale.

The age of the recently discovered animal is linked to the rock the fossils were found in. The sandstone dates somewhere between the end of the Miocene epoch and the beginning of the Pliocene, the excavators say.